The art has developed several procedures for preparing barley in a manner which would increase the ease of final cooking by the end user. However, each of the prior art procedures has at least one shortcoming.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,890,957 and No. 2,944,904, Seltzer describes processing barley or rice to render them quick-cooking. The grains are soaked in water to hydrate without gelatinizing, steamed under pressure to gelatinize, compressed and finally dried. The barley prepared in this manner is physically deformed, yet still requires cooking for ten minutes for final preparation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,495,989, Lewis et al. describe the preparation of barley and a wide variety of other foods as quick-cooking foods. Their process entails soaking the barley in saline solution, tempering, gelatinizing in hot air, packaging and pasteurizing. Even though the product has a higher moisture than the unprocessed grain--requiring vacuum packaging and pasteurizing--it requires simmering for 12 minutes prior to serving.
Takatsu et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,454, disclose the treatment of various cereal foods, including barley, to make their final preparation easier. The disclosure calls for gelatinizing with pressurized steam, drying, and frying. The frying produces swelled, porous granules which must be deoiled prior to packaging.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,371, Yamaguchi et al. describe the preparation of a microwavable barley by utilizing pressure cooking as a first gelatinizing step, soaking for a second period of time, and drying over a period of 90 minutes.
Each of the prior art procedures has a shortcoming in terms of energy consumption, ease of final preparation, or loss of product texture or integrity. None of the prior art procedures has recognized that it is possible to process barley so that it can be prepared for eating by a simple five minute cook, followed by a five minute stand.